In post-Final War North America, there is a vast Wasteland, bordered on the West by the undead hordes of the Tomb Kings, on the East by the Federal Republic of America, the Republic of Lakotah and the New Confederate States of America, on the North by the Chaos Wastes and the Lone Star Republic to the South, this land is so savage and lawless that only the most brain-dead zombies or crazed devotees of Khorne, Chaos Lord of War and Bloodshed, would casually venture into them.

There are, however, any number of small settlements and city states scattered throughout the Wastes, and oftentimes, the only difference between their survival and destruction are the few forces of good who regularly risk their lives to patrol the lawless wilderness and bring some kind of law and order to it. The main three are the Federal Republic of America Dragoons, the Lone Star Republic Texas Rangers and the Airborne Demolitions Unit.

The one we are dealing with today is the Airborne Demolitions Unit or ADU, which has an interesting history. Not only is it an elite unit, on par with the Federal Republic of America Special Operations Command (SOComm) and the Texas Rangers, but it is one that, for all intents and purposes, belongs to no nation.

The ADU was originally an elite unit in the North American Union Army just prior to and during the Final War, and after serving with distinction against the nefarious Dr. Regis Blackgaard's elite Blacktron unit, they were rotated off the front lines to counter-insurgency duty in the area of the North Dakota/Saskatchewan border. The antimatter missile exchange that ended the Final War occurred while they were assigned here, allowing them to escape unscathed.

Somehow, during the years following the Final War, they managed to maintain their unit cohesion and core values, becoming one of the only forces of order in the Wastes. They have since become a highly respected mercenary/heroes for hire outfit, with a famous sliding pay scale: Once, they helped an impoverished settlement defeat a particularly notorious raider gang for nothing more than a share of the loot captured from the raider camp and 3 days worth of food and water.

While they have recently established bases in the Republic of Lakotah (where ADU members serve as the elected Chief's personal body guard, similar to the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine Empire) Lone Star Republic (in the Navajo Nation) and the Free State Redmond (Federal Republic of America Exclave on the West Coast), the ADU's mainstay for patrolling the wastes is still the M-115 Mobile Command Center.

The APC sports dual 120mm cannons as well as side-mounted blasters, while the Command Control module is equipped with a dual 20mm dual-purpose Vulcan cannon as well as multipurpose missiles and (once the fighter launches) twin anti-aircraft blaster cannons for defensive purposes.

Both modules are also equipped with loading ramps for easy crew access and the command control unit has ladders for the pilot to access the fighter. This particular fighter is one of the last surviving pre-Final War Vic Viper orbital space fighters, and on the day of the antimatter missile exchange, it took part in the general fighter scramble to intercept as many inbound missiles as possible. The Viper and two Sky-Spear Class ships (currently with the Federal Republic of America Air Force) are the only North American Union space fighters to survive the Final War, however its pilot succumbed to severe radiation poisoning from a near miss shortly after landing.

The interior of the APC unit is rather cramped, but with heavy Unobtainium armor, armor-plast windows and no flat tires, it provides the equivalent protection and firepower of a medium tank for the crew and squad of power armor troopers it carries into battle.

The interior of the Command Control module is somewhat roomier, with a lounge/berthing area as well as consoles for the weapons control and communications personnel and plenty of weapons racks (including a full reload for the multipurpose missile launchers).

(4th wall: Yes, that alien crew member in the lounge drinking coffee is, in fact, reading a copy of the "Daily Prophet"... It's that kind of setting. )

About the Build: First of all, yes, those ARE Kre-O Battleship series Aliens... I just thought they looked cool and decided to add them to my ad-hoc ADU trooper squad. I ended up using up all my ADU troops and Series 7 Galaxy Squad minifigs for this build, but it was totally worth it. The Nnenn tribute Vic Viper is completely unchanged, and is the first LEGO set I've actually added stickers to in 10 years... The reasons are that IMO, it is perfect the way it is, and this is also my way of honoring Nnenn's memory.

My favorite parts of this mod would have to be the main gun turret, which is probably the most SNOT I've ever used in one place (but it works quite well, I think), and figuring out how to mod the deployable antenna dishes so that the interior was fully enclosed was a challenge, but after a couple of hours I finally found something that worked.... Which I then had to modify further to fit the radar/communications consoles in.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this mod as much as I had building it... I held off getting the Earth Defense HQ set until just about two weeks ago, when I found a couple at Toys R Us, and I now wish I had gotten it sooner (I'm still kicking myself for not getting the Jet Copter Encounter set... If the Camp Hill Barnes and Noble still has it this weekend, I'm buying that sucker, no questions asked!)...

Thanks! BTW, I forgot to mention that the "Bomb Squad" shield, the officer's shoulder pauldron and the sniper rifle were all part of one of the Brickfair 2011 battle packs that I bought off Armothe himself!

I've always had a thing for huge vehicles that were multifunctional and modular. You pulled this on off particularity well. I'm liking the design for that jet fighter as well. Is it original?

Thanks! As for the jet fighter, as I said at the end of the first post, it is the original, unmodified Vic Viper from the Earth Defense HQ set with all the stickers (and I normally NEVER put stickers on my LEGO bricks): The reason for this is that Mark Stafford (Nabii), the LEGO designer of that particular set and the plane itself, added a tribute to the late Nate "Nnenn" Neilson, who was considered to be the undisputed king of LEGO Vic Vipers and had died in a car accident early in 2010. Keeping the Vic Viper in its original configuration with its Nnenn decals (the small ones beside the cockpit) and 71 number (the year of Nate's birth) is my way of honoring Nnenn's memory.

Anyways, I was inspired today to figure out how to add something similar to the original Flick-Fire Missile pods from the original set to my mod and this is what I came up with:

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